These new Snapchat Spectacles look more like normal sunglasses

- Nico and Veronica styles add to the original Spectacles 2

Snapchat has introduced two new Spectacles styles today - Nico and Veronica. They're identical internally to the glasses introduced earlier this year that capture Full HD images and video but they now come with polarised Lenses and a new, semi-soft protective case, designed for portability. They pass UVA and UVB ratings.

The new glasses are available from today, in initially limited quantities, in some European countries and the US. They're available for £199 in the UK which is £50 more than the standard Snap Spectacles. Later this year, they will also be sold in Harrods and Selfridges Smartech in the UK.

Snap

The 2018 Spectacles are water resistant, have dual microphones and can quickly transfer images to your phone - Snap says its seeing sub-3 second transfer times. The 2018 Spectacles can also store up to 150 videos or 3,000 photos.

Later this year, a new Snapchat feature designed to automatically curate Specs Snaps into a Highlight Story will begin rolling out. The idea is that it will make snaps from your specs a lot easier to share.

Snap

Over 187 million people use Snapchat every day including 60 million in Europe. Snap says that since launching Spectacles 2 in April, users are capturing more Snaps if they have a pair of Spectacles – a 40% increase on average per user.

Snap adds that it is looking beyond the phone, saying that "phones will not always be a primary source of communication, documentation, and entertainment...we envision that one day the Spectacles camera will also provide the wearer with a rich understanding of the world around them. This will be accomplished by integrating digital layers into the view of the physical world [using Augmented Reality].